After a 7-month renovation, the venerable, 20-year-old Izzy’s on the Peninsula has reopened this month with an clubby, sophisticated look befitting a beloved steakhouse, plus a more expansive menu to satisfy wide-ranging appetites, and a new outdoor dining patio (set to open sometime in February).

When I was invited to dine as a guest of the restaurant last week, it had been open less than two weeks, and was already packed with diners — on a Tuesday night no less.

The family-owned, 7,500-square-foot restaurant, not far from the San Carlos Airport, is an institution that was opened by restaurateur Sam Duvall after he opened the original Izzy’s Steakhouse in San Francisco in 1987. That flagship is also undergoing renovations, including the addition of a new parklet, and is expected to reopen this summer.

Daughter Samantha Duvall Bechtel became the CEO of the restaurant group after her father passed away in 2020. He had named the restaurant for the bootlegger Isadore “Izzy” Gomez, a Portuguese immigrant, chef, and San Francisco North Beach restaurateur who infamously was jailed for 30 days after violating Prohibition, but was later pardoned.

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